Shepard’s Pie

No. 183

A covert wish….we’ve all got one, so when I decided to throw my 50th birthday party the other week, just for fun I suggested “Your Dirty Secret” as the theme. In truth I just wanted to fill a room with provocatively dressed girls, and my favourite DJ’s.

It’s no mystery that DJ Aceedo Domingo likes to musically” top from the bottom”, and it was he who started the night off; I doubt Jenna Jameson has seen more fluffing in one go. A stunning example of playing to the gallery who didn’t feel dirty loving his raunchy house disco beats. Aceedo left the crowd throbbing like an apprentice carpenters thumb.

Grantly’s job was to continue with foreplay, navigating a frolicsome deep house flotilla around cod cove, and brown sea island, followed by enough light house polishing to keep Captain Birdseye’s second mate out of the seaman’s mission. By the end of his set, the party was leakier then a Foreman grill.

It was left to Nick Brennan (Tripswitch) and James Monro to perform a psychedelic trance spit roast that was muckier then an abattoir’s floor, and by the end, grubbier then a pensioner’s colostomy bag…in a good way.

I cooked-up a storm for the after party, although that recipe was most definitely my own dirty little secret.

By Sunday evening we’d all lost the capacity to think, so ended up in Nando’s, although a trip to the comfort food restaurant “Coin Laundry” in Exmouth market would probably have been more appropriate, where such classics as Shepard’s pie are served. Below is my own version.

Firstly brown the mince until thoroughly cooked on the outside; remove from the pan and set a side. Fry off the onion and garlic until translucent in a little unsalted butter/ I tbsp. olive oil and then add one tin of chopped tomatoes; blitz with a stick blender and add the mince; cook for about an hour, and for the final 5 minutes add 1 tspn of marmite, a few drops of Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce. Set aside.

For the mash, peel the potatoes, dice and boil in a pan of water until soft. Drain, add 30g unsalted butter,20ml milk, season, and using a potato masher, smash. Pass all the potato through a fine sieve and set a side. Place a large quantity of the mince into a ramequin, cover with mash potato, repeat and then cook all 4 pie’s for 15 minutes at 180oc/gas 6, or until the potato browns on top.